As Britain faces 1 of driest Aprils ever, could we soon be drinking desalinated water?

Add to My Stories As Britain basks in the sun during one of the driest April's on record it seems one water provider has started up a revolutionary seawater plant just in time.The 270million Thames Water desalination plant, which took four years to build, was finally completed in June 2010.
It works by removing the salt from the brackish water in the Thames Estuary before pumping the filtered liquid into its vast reservoirs.

London's burning: Sunseekers enjoyed the hottest day of the year so far in the capital this week. Thames Water may need to use filtered seawater if the dry conditions continueEngineers started running water through the system for the first time three weeks ago.'We began using the desalination plant at one-sixth output on March 30, not because we need to but as part of the fine-tuning of the works and the training of its operators, and we have been using it intermittently since then,' Simon Evans of Thames Water told Mail Online.

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The water company provides 2,600m litres of water a day. Currently around one per cent, or 25million litres is coming from the sea water plant, which is the first of its kind.

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Water, water everywhere, and now a drop to drink: A worker walks between giant transfer pipes at Britain's first-ever mainland desalination plantShould it be needed, the plant can provide 150million litres of water a day at full capacity, which is enough to supply 400,000 households in North-East London.
'Although at the moment our reservoirs are 95 per cent full we never know what the weat! her will bring,' Mr Evans said.
'It's conceivable we may have to use it if the dry conditions continue. That's why we built it after all.'If we have a particularly dry summer we will of course use the plant at whatever output is required.'

HOW IT WORKSThe plant works by taking a mixture of salty and fresh water from the River Thames where it meets the sea, then treats it using various cleaning and filtering processes.
Salt is removed using a process called reverse osmosis. This involves forcing the water at high pressure through very fine membranes, which hold back the salt and other molecules.The treated water is then re-mineralised so that it has similar properties to other local supplies. The resulting water is slightly softer than normal.
The water is then purified to ensure it is safe to drink, before being released into the supply network.

Purify: How the brackish water is filtered at the desalination plant in Beckton, East LondonThe Thames Water project was proposed following the drought of 2005/6 but was opposed by the former London Mayor Ken Livingstone, who argued that it would use to much energy.
Rejecting the proposal the mayor said: 'I am not convinced that a desalination plant is a viable long-term way to ensure London has an adequate supply of water.'He said more effort should be put into stopping leaking pipes and installing water meters to encourage customers to reduce their water usage.But Mr Evans said: 'Since 2005 we have been making our service more resilient. We have replaced over 1,300 miles of pipes and reduced leakages by 27 per cent.'The project was allowed to continue by mayoral successor Boris Johnson in 2008, after Thames Water claimed the South-East faced 'a high risk of severe water shortages,' without it.However, Mr Evans said there was no reason for customers to panic this year.'We do not currently see the need for any water restr! ictions this year,' he said.'But we continue to encourage our customers to use water wisely.'